


and with your touch, i'm free

by aboyandhiswolves (rocketmeaway)



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-28
Updated: 2013-06-28
Packaged: 2017-12-16 11:53:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/861698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rocketmeaway/pseuds/aboyandhiswolves
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek definitely needs this, no matter what he tries to tell himself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	and with your touch, i'm free

**Author's Note:**

> This just kind of...happened. I'm tentatively shipping them, but if they're done right, I'll probably end up shipping them hard. You can come visit me at my [Tumblr](http://aboyandhiswolves.tumblr.com), where this has been [cross posted!](http://aboyandhiswolves.tumblr.com/post/54122971100/i-accidentally-deriferd)

This isn’t something that he needs, not right now.

Derek has kept trying to tell himself that, but he knows he was damned from the start, when he went back for her. There was something in the way she looked at him and took his hand without any questions, even after what she’d just seen, that made something in him innately curious. It was like beneath all the blood, she could see how exhausted he was, and despite the situation she’d been trapped in, partly due to him, she had opted not to exhaust him even more with questions he didn’t know how to answer.

He found himself returning the consideration when he went back to the school. It was easy to find her room. He could smell the faint floral traces of her perfume as soon as he walked in, and let it lead him to a brightly lit and decorated English classroom. Her writing was still on the blackboard, neat and precise, noting the homework from last night. Her name was bold and underlined in the top right corner. Ms. Blake.

The smile that she caused with her reaction to him was a shock, so he suppressed it as much as he could. No one had made him smile like that in a while, soft and genuine and amused, and it may or may not have caused a stirring of nervousness deep within him. It was a teenaged sort of nervousness, the sort from when you first develop a crush on someone and all you want to do is listen to them talk and make them smile. He didn’t want to think about the last time he’d felt that.

She had babbled on at him, unsure of how to carry herself or react around him, which made sense. So he did the only thing he could think of to try and get them on common ground by blurting out literary smarts, which in and of itself was so foreign to him he barely managed to keep himself from cringing. It didn’t quite have the effect he’d been hoping for, which made it even worse, but he felt better when she demanded his name and offered hers in return. It was a small step.

A first date was sort of set up after they ran into each other again in a hallway at the school. He’d been looking for Scott, and stumbled spectacularly over his words when she asked what he was doing there. She had just stood there, smiling to herself and letting him dig himself deeper until finally cutting him off and suggesting maybe he could gather his thoughts and explain it to her over dinner, sometime. She jotted down her phone number and shoved it into his hand, taking off back down the hallway and leaving him to stand there, staring after her, completely dumbstruck. He’d called her later that night and just barely managed to set something up for the next night at 7.

It had been awkward, to say the least. He didn’t know how to open up, and to be honest, Jennifer wasn’t sure how to talk to him, either. The conversation was stilted and revolved around the weather and how delicious the restaurant’s breadsticks were. She had briefly tried to bring other things up, like his favorite television show or the last movie he’d seen, but they were weak attempts made even worse when he’d just shrugged and said he didn’t have cable and didn’t go to the movies. Derek knew he’d blown it, and was shocked when she quietly suggested they give it one more try. The look in her eyes had told him that she knew there was more to him. He wasn’t a boring person, that much was obvious considering what she’d seen him do.

Disaster struck when he missed their second date. It was out of his control; the Alpha pack was trying to kill his sister, and as such he was too wrapped up to even remember or to give her a call. The next day was a teacher work day, and he was still exhausted and distressed when he burst into her classroom, startling her to attention. _“I’m sorry,”_ were the gruff, simple words he managed, and she’d quietly stood, leading him over to sit in one of the student’s desks. She sat in the desk in front of him and leaned over to put her hand over his, and he had to fight to keep control of himself.

Their second date was later that night, once she’d finished her work. Of all things, she took him for ice cream, and nodded in approval when he got himself butter pecan. They sat down in a quiet, deserted corner of the ice cream parlor, and his ice cream was nearly gone before he finally spoke and admitted the bare minimum to her with the short, and not in the slightest bit simple phrase, _“I’m a werewolf.”_ Again, she didn’t overload him with questions, just nodded through her shock and reached out to take his hand again. Grateful didn’t even cover it.

He didn’t know why he trusted her, and he questioned it even harder when after that, he didn’t hear from her for a few days. Her call finally came during her lunch break at work, her voice quiet, but slightly giddy. He could hear from her tone she’d been questioning herself, as well. _“Now that I’ve had time to process...I’d really like to see you again.”_

At the end of their third date, she kissed him goodnight outside her door. Neither of them were still entirely sure what they were doing, and it started out as something tentative and entirely too awkward until Jennifer reached up and cupped the side of his face. Her gentle, encouraging touch made him relax and his own hand came to a rest at the back of her head, pulling her in closer. When the kiss broke, Jennifer bit her lip and smiled, and Derek couldn’t help but return it. For the first time in years, he felt like flying.

Things are so much easier, after that. The end of the fifth date found them tumbling into her bed together, and it had been in no way perfect, considering his past, and he’d been embarrassed by it at first. She had pressed him gently with low words, reassuring him, and he’d finally told her what he’d been through before. The weight off his chest at finally telling someone about it had been incredible and terrifying at the same time, but she’d soothed him. She’d taken control of the situation, because he’d needed her to, and the way she loved him was so much different. It was slow and heated and attentive and so far from the hot, lust driven fucks he’d had with Kate. It was overwhelming, because he realized it was the difference between someone who cared...and someone who hadn’t, not in the slightest.

It’s not until months later that he realizes maybe he does need this, and her, right now. They’re in his loft and the sun is rising, shedding light over their bodies, tangled together in his bed. He’s always been an early riser, but Jen is more into sleeping in, especially when she’s with him. It doesn’t matter if she has work, or not. He always has to gently force her out of bed despite her muffled complaints, and it never fails to make him smile. The feel of it is becoming more familiar to him. He shifts her in his arms and she starts up her mumbling, stretching against him.

She leans up to kiss him, and her morning breath isn’t in the least bit pleasant. He pulls a face and turns his head away with a groan, making her laugh sleepily. When she presses a kiss to his shoulder and murmurs, _“I love you, you jerk.”_ is the precise moment when he realizes he needed this. He needed this more than anything, and her timing was perfect, even though it didn’t seem like it was, not at the start. It’s the moment when he’s finally done kidding himself and closing himself off, and he couldn’t be more thankful, because Jennifer has saved him from himself. He couldn’t have asked more of any single person.


End file.
